Blog Posts by Charlene Prince Birkeland, Shine staff

photo credit: REUTERS/Paul Drinkwater/NBC/Handout It's been a busy weekend in octuplet obsession land. We're all still talking about the many questions we all have related to their birth; their mom, Nadya Suleman; and the idea of being addicted to having kids.

But more news abounds. Here's the latest:

• Suleman's mom, Angela, spoke with Radaronline.com about how she believes her daughter is simply incapable of taking care of her kids. More disturbing? Check out the photos of the home where the family currently lives-and imagine 8 newborns in the picture.

• The Medical Board of California has launched an investigation into the fertility doctor who implanted Suleman with six embryos. (He works at West Coast IVF in Beverly Hills, Calif. The site is currently down.) And one big concern is that this same doctor handled the in vitro fertilization for her other pregnancies, which resulted in six births.

• Suleman was interviewed by Ann Curry of NBC's "Today Show." (Part two of the interview will air on Tuesday.) She showed off her babies,

photo credit: mominmadison.blogspot.comIf you want to help your kids make Valentine's Day cards for their class but you're worried about undertaking a DIY project that involves too many steps, Denise from Mom in Madison has a simple solution: potato prints.

This project is especially easy because you just need a few simple items that you'll likely have on hand: a potato, red or white construction paper and red paint.

Denise's kids embellished the cards with stickers and stamps, but I think the simple look of a lone heart is pretty sweet.

More photos and details over at Mom in Madison. [via Crafty Crow]

Related Valentine's Day links on Shine:

DIY Valentine's Day cards: Kid friendly, easy and inexpensive
A simple, sweet Valentine's Day gift for your kids (it's four bucks!)

So you're already working on keeping your kid's teeth healthy. What do you do when they start falling out?

Bring on the tooth fairy.

My buddy sent me a link to this very formal looking tooth fairy kit (US$16), complete with a letterpress Certificate of Record where mom and dad can jot down their kid's name, age, tooth lost and the "method of extraction."

Here's the funny part: Mom or dad also writes down how much the tooth fairy should compensate their kid for the lost tooth.

The tooth and certificate go in a reusable deposit bag and get left under a pillow for the tooth fairy to do her thing.

I'll admit this kit is really cute. But I think I'll stick with a more mysterious tooth fairy tradition.

Photo Credit: Getty ImagesShortly after Nadya Suleman gave birth to her octuplets, her own mom told anyone who would listen that her daughter was "obsessed with having kids."

In a Boston Globe article, a psychologist specializing in women's reproductive mental health said "women that have obsessive-compulsive disorder can become fixated on different obsessions."

Two of those obsessions could be having kids and being a mom. What about an obsession with pregnancy?

Even though I lost all control over my burgeoning body as the babies grew in my belly, I thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of pregnancy. I love my kids and adore motherhood.

But like many parents who are responding to my post about the octuplet obsession, I can't even imagine having eight newborns, let alone 14 kids. However, I do know a few moms who loved being pregnant. And they'd love to be pregnant again, just to go through the experience and soak in that newborn smell one. more. time.

So Shine readers, we want to hear from you. Do you think you

Photo Credit: Peter Lindbergh for Harper's BazaarActress Sarah Jessica Parker can be as glamorous as she wants, but my favorite photos of her are when she's about town in a pair of jeans, taking her kid to school and looking like a regular mom.

In the cover story of the March issue of Harper's Bazaar, Parker comes off as just that: a modern mom who deals with Lego blocks, has a son who doesn't care when she's dressed up, and takes her kid to the public library.

The article focuses on the launch of Parker's latest fragrances, along with Parker's tribute to fashion legend Diana Vreeland, who was Harper Bazaar's fashion editor from 1936 to 1962. But what I most enjoyed about the story were the tidbits of information that shed some light on Parker's life as a mom to six-year-old son James Wilke. (His dad is Parker's husband, Matthew Broderick.)

On spotting the "Sex in the City" tour bus when she's with her kid:

"...There are times when I'm like, Oh, God, I'd better run in the other direction. Especially when I'm with my son."

On what

Homemade croutons 101...

When I eat salads at a restaurant, the croutons make the dish. The perfect balance of airy bread, seasonings and olive oil (or if you want to be really decadent, butter).

Homemade croutons take less than 20 minutes to bake. And? You can get the kids involved.

Here's a little homemade crouton 101 in photos in case you want to have your own little test-kitchen project. Trust me, you'll never buy a bag or box of prepackaged crouts again.

Slice and tear your baguette...

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice one long sourdough baguette* into rounds and then tear up the rounds into rough 1/2" cubes (a good spot to let the kids help). Toss the pieces into a nice, big bowl. We use our salad bowl because the leftover seasonings can coat the dinner salad. You can use any baguette flavor you'd like, but I favor sourdough bread for croutons, especially sourdough covered in sunflower, poppy and anise seeds.

Drizzle olive oil...

2. Drizzle the bread cubes with 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil. Wait! Don't toss the

Until your kids can read numbers on a digital clock or tell time, teaching them to stay in bed until Mr. Sun is awake can be a chore challenging. When my older son was in his toddler/preschooler stage, he woke us up many, many times at 5 a.m. because he was ready to play. Mom and Dad? Not so much.

We showed the kid how to read 6:30 on his digital clock, followed by the rule, "You cannot come out of your room until the clock says this time...unless you have to go potty and then you have to go right. back. to. bed."

However, I am smitten with this sweet "Good Nite Lite" (US$35). It's a six-inch night light that glows blue in the evening, letting your kids know they need to stay in bed. In the morning, it shines brightly...like the sun. Mom and dad set the time the light changes from moon to sun.

In short, it's brilliant.

photo credit: AFP/File/Martin BureauAs we continue to read news stories about the mother who gave birth to octuplets last week, many of us have even more questions that begin with "who," "what," "where," "when" and "why" and "how."

All of the questions are tinged with opinion and they usually go like this:

• Who is going to help take care of these babies? (And how are the other children doing?) Also, who foot the bill for her in vitro fertilization (IVF)?
  
• What kind of doctor would implant a single mom -- with six kids under the age of seven -- with multiple embryos? (And who are we to even think anyone has the right to tell a woman how many babies she can have?)
  
• Where were the early signs that the mom had some sort of obsession with having babies? (And shouldn't someone, oh, a doctor maybe, have noticed?)
• Why would a single woman with six very young children, all living in Grandma's three-bedroom home (Grandma filed for bankruptcy last year), want more kids? (Again, who are we